Slatington's Borough Council meeting took an unexpected turn Monday when regular meeting attendee and resident Mel Gildner was ejected from it.

After several other public commenters spoke without incident, Gildner approached the podium and immediately directed his comments toward Councilman Jon Rinker.Gildner said Rinker was selling T-shirts from his Jeep at the downtown trailhead on Sept. 2 and asked him if he had a vendor's license or permission from the borough to do so.At first Rinker, who has had verbal confrontations with Gildner during meetings in the past, said nothing.However, Gildner pressed on and Rinker responded that he had not been taking up any space and that the shirts had been inside his Jeep, to which Gildner said he has proof the shirts were "hanging on your Jeep."Finally, Rinker asked, "'In? On? Mel, is this something crucial that is going to hurt our community?"He then went on to ask Gildner about the thousands of dollars per month in right-to-know requests the borough faces, which Rinker later said far exceeds that of neighboring municipalities.Gildner said the right-to-know requests were filed because the council is not transparent enough. He then went on to call Rinker "an embarrassment to the community" and asked him to resign.Vice President Gwyneth Neff again pounded the gavel for silence.They continued arguing a moment, but Rinker then stopped. However, Gildner did not. He said he had not gotten his five full minutes to speak, even though the timer had gone off more than a minute earlier.Gildner at first refused to leave the podium after Neff asked him to sit down. She then warned him she would ask for him to be escorted out if he persisted in speaking, but he kept commenting anyway.Neff made a motion to have Police Chief David Rachman escort Gildner out of the meeting, and it was approved 5-1, with Councilman David Schnaars opposed.Neff told Gildner to take with him a video camera that he uses to record each meeting, but he said the camera also belongs to his wife, who was present, and it was allowed to remain.Posted on the wall in council chambers by each meeting's sign-in sheet is Resolution R08-12, enacted March 12, 2012, to establish the "rules of good conduct, order and courtesy" during borough public meetings. It limits public comment to five minutes, with Section 8 addressing the fact that the council chair/president may, at his/her discretion and upon majority approval of a motion, eject "any visitor who is out of order or disruptive or violates any of these rules during any meeting." Section 9 states that "the chair/president of council may request assistance from the police department in enforcing any ejection."In other news, after calling an executive session to discuss matters of legal and personnel, council reconvened and made a motion to accept a letter of resignation, with regret, from recently appointed Councilwoman Amanda Trelease.Trelease, who was appointed June 16 to fill the vacancy left by former President Daniel Stevens, was to serve until the first Monday of January 2016.The motion passed 5-1, with Councilman Galen Freed voting "No" and no vote from Trelease, who was absent.During the earlier meeting, council also unamiously approved the hiring of William Borst to the position of full-time police officer and the purchase of fifteen 40 caliber Glock handguns, Model 22, at $59 apiece plus the cost of associated holsters, after trade-in of previous police department guns.